Have you ever waited until the last minute to do an assignment? Waited until the night before the due date to write a paper?

This is a common thing called procrastination, and can cause a lot of stress, especially about schoolwork. Well, in this article, I will be giving you all of the study tips you need in order to try and overcome procrastination. 

According to Boise State University, how much energy you put into decisions throughout the day can really impact your productivity. You are wasting time deciding whether or not to go to the gym, or do this assignment today, or tomorrow, after practice? These seemingly insignificant decisions actually impact your productivity throughout the day. 

To not waste time and energy deciding how to plan your day, try and make the decisions that you often struggle with the night before. For example, pick out your outfit the day before school, plan on going to the gym before work, or make your lunch the night before. These will all help your day to go smoother and help you to not put off the things that are actually important.

Now, here are some actual study tips to help yourself get better at studying and help you to not put it off until the last minute.

• Space out your studying

This is also called ‘distributed practice,’ and the best proven method is to study a little bit of each class every day.

• Intense studying

Sometimes intense sessions of studying can really help you to get the most information you can out of one period of time.

• Silence is not always golden

Only you know yourself best, and sometimes the intense quiet of a library is not the best place to work. Maybe it is in a cafe, or the comfort of your own room. Just make sure you are in a place that you know you can try and do your best work.

• Consider the problem

Sometimes re-working a problem (usually in math or science) is good. You do not always have to leave it for later, especially if you know you truly can work it out with a little time.

• Multitasking does not equal productivity

Many sources have proven that multitasking negatively impacts your study time. The best way to study is to eliminate all distractions and just focus on the task at hand.

• Change the setting

Not all studying needs to be done in the same place, sometimes it helps to switch up your surroundings.

• Teach yourself

Sometimes in order to understand the material, you have to interpret it in your own words. Try and imagine that you are a teacher, and explain it that way.

Pentucket junior Allie Bleichfeld states, “sometimes if I am having trouble understanding one subject I take a break and look at another class’s work, just to clear my brain. Then I come back to what I was having trouble understanding before.” Bleichfeld also states, “I like to take a little break when I get home from school to relax, then I like to do my work about a half an hour after I get back from school.”

The interview above shows that these study methods do work, for anyone, not just people who leave their work until the last minute. 

Having different strategies of studying can help people to break the habit of procrastinating. Hopefully these study methods will help you learn not to leave that essay until the last second, or that math homework until the teacher is walking around checking work.